Six Accused in Rape Case Charged with Murder

Six Accused in Rape Case Charged with Murder

Article excerpt

NEW DELHI -- As protests grew Saturday in India over the death of
a young woman who was raped in New Delhi this month by several men
in a moving bus, the police said six men accused of attacking her
had been charged with murder.

A police spokesman, Rajan Bhagat, said that if convicted of
murder, the men could face the death penalty in the Dec. 16 attack,
which shocked India because of its savagery, led to violent protests
and prompted demands for improved protection for women as well as
calls for the death penalty in rape cases.

The country's Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that the death penalty
should be used only in the "rarest of rare" cases, and fewer than 50
people have been executed since India's independence in 1947.

The woman, who has not been identified, has become a symbol for
the treatment of women in India, where rape is common and conviction
rates for the crime are low. She boarded a bus with a male friend
after watching a movie at a mall, and was raped and attacked with an
iron rod by the men, who the police later said had been drinking and
were on a "joy ride."

She died Saturday morning in Singapore, where she had been flown
for treatment for the severe internal injuries caused by the
assault. She had an infection in her lungs and abdomen, liver damage
and a brain injury, the Singapore hospital said, and died from organ
failure. Her body was flown back to India on Saturday.

As news of her death spread Saturday, India's young, social-
network-using population began to organize protests and candlelight
vigils in places like the western city of Cochin in Kerala, the
outsourcing hub of Bangalore and New Delhi, the capital. Just a tiny
sliver of India's population can afford a computer or has access to
the Internet, but the young, educated subset of this group has
become increasingly galvanized over the New Delhi rape case.

Late Saturday afternoon, thousands of people, most of them men,
filled Jantar Mantar, an observatory and popular protest ground in
New Delhi, where they waved placards and shouted slogans. When
Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of Delhi, arrived there in the
early afternoon surrounded by a police escort, she was booed,
heckled and jostled by the crowd. …